1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a system for the ergonomic representation of a map.
2. Related Art
Systems for presenting map information (“map information systems”), such as those that electronically present map information to a driver of a vehicle, may include a color thin film transistor (“TFT”) display for representing street maps, and an integrated navigation system for localizing the vehicle relative to the map. Map information systems may present maps or portions of maps (individually and collectively referred to in this document as “map portions”). These systems may represent map portions according to user or other requirements, and may represent the maps in various views. These views may include, the area surrounding a destination, a route, or the user's current position. Further, map information system may represent the map portion in a variety of scales.
In contrast to printed maps, map information systems may calculate map portions in real time from abstract map data that may be stored in a memory. Map information systems may produce representations of a map portion from the smallest possible number of primitive basic elements (collectively “map data”). Therefore, the representation may appear very coarse. Streets may be represented by simple lines, independent from the scale of the map portion, and may include labels or street names. These labels or street names generally include alpha-numeric characters oriented along a horizontal line or a continuous tangent independently of the orientation and the shape of the associated street. Therefore, map information systems may produce representations of map portions that appear very coarse and simple when compared with printed maps. As a result, an excessive percentage of the user's attention may be devoted to interpreting the representation, and the user may not be able to grasp the map information intuitively. These issues are compounded when the map information system is used by the driver of a vehicle.